By Samir Amin

1

For the last thirty years the world system has undergone an extreme centralization of power in all its dimensions, local and international, economic and military, social and cultural.

Some thousand giant corporations and some hundreds of financial institutions that have formed cartels among themselves, have reduced national and globalized production systems to the status of sub-contractors. In this way the financial oligarchies appropriate a growing share of the profits from labour and from companies that have been transformed into rent producers for their exclusive benefit.

Having domesticated the main right-wing and left-wing parties the unions and the organizations of the so-called civil society, these oligarchies now also exercise absolute political power as well as the media that is subordinated to them, creating the necessary disinformation to depoliticize public opinion. The oligarchies have annihilated the traditional practice of multi-partyism, replacing it almost to a one-party system, controlled by capital. Representative democracy having lost all its meaning, has lost its legitimacy.

This late contemporary capitalism, which is a completely closed system, corresponds to the criteria of ‘totalitarianism’, although care is taken not to name it as such. The totalitarianism is still ‘soft’ but it is always ready to resort to extreme violence as soon as the victims – the majority of workers and peoples – begin to revolt. All changes that are part of this so-called ‘modernization’ must be seen in light of the foregoing analysis. This is thus the case of major ecological challenges (especially climate change) that capitalism is incapable of resolving (the Paris agreement of December 2016 was only a smokescreen), as well as scientific progress and technological innovations (including IT), which are rigorously subjected to the requirements of the financial profit that they can make for the monopolies. The glorification of competitiveness and the freedom of the market that the subservient media present as guarantees of the freedom and efficiency of civil society are indeed the antithesis of the reality, which is riven by violent conflicts between fractions of the existing oligarchies and is the cause for the destructive effects of their governance.

2
At the world level, contemporary capitalism always follows the same imperialist logic that was typical as it became globalized from the start (the colonization of the 19th century was clearly a form of globalization). Contemporary ‘globalization’ does not escape this logic: it is nothing else but a new form of imperialist globalization. This term ‘globalization’, so often used without any definition, hides an important fact: the deployment of systematic strategies that have been developed by the historical imperialist powers (United States, Western and Central European countries, Japan, which I shall call ‘the Triad’) that continue to pillage the resources of the Global South and the super-exploitation of its labour that is associated with delocalization and subcontracting. These powers intend to maintain their ‘historical privilege’ and to prevent all the other nations from extricating themselves from the status of dominated peripheries. The history of the last century was in fact that of the revolt of the peoples of the peripheries of the world system who were engaged in a socialist de-linking or in attenuated forms of national liberation, whose page has, for the moment, been turned. The re-colonization now under way, which has no legitimacy, is therefore fragile.

For this reason, the historical imperialist powers of the Triad have set up a system of collective military control over the planet, directed by the United States. Membership of NATO, which is inextricably linked to the construction of Europe, as also the militarization of Japan, reflects the requirement of this new collective imperialism which has taken over the national imperialisms (of the United States, Great Britain, Japan, Germany, France and a few others) which were formerly in permanent and violent conflict.
In these conditions, constructing an international front of workers and the peoples of the whole world has to be the main objective of the struggle to meet the challenge of counteracting the spreading of contemporary imperialist capitalism.

3
Confronted by this tremendous challenge, the inadequacy of the struggles being carried out by the victims of the system is all too apparent. Their weaknesses are of different kinds which I would classify under the following headings:

i. the extreme fragmentation of the struggles, whether at the local or world level, which are always specific and conducted in particular places and subject-matters (ecology, women’s rights, social services, community demands, etc.) The rare campaigns conducted at the national or even world level have not had any significant success in that they have not forced any changes of the policies being carried out by those in power. Many of these struggles have been absorbed by the system and foster the illusion that it is possible to reform it.

Nevertheless, there has been an enormous acceleration in the process of generalized proletarianization. Almost all the populations in the central capitalist countries are now subjected to the status of waged workers selling their labour. The industrialization of regions in the Global South has created worker proletariats and salaried middle classes while their peasantries are now fully integrated into the market system. But the political strategies employed by the powerful have succeeded in fragmenting this gigantic proletariat into diverse fractions that are often in conflict with each other. This contradiction must be overcome.

ii. The peoples of the Triad (USA, Western and Central Europe, Japan) have renounced international anti-imperialist solidarity, which has been replaced at best by ‘humanitarian’ campaigns and ‘aid’ programmes that are controlled by the capital of the monopolies. The European political forces that inherited left-wing traditions thus now support the imperialist vision of existing globalization.

iii. A new right-wing ideology has gained support among the people. In the North, the central theme of anti-capitalist class struggle has been abandoned, or reduced to a greatly incomplete expression – for the benefit of a so-called new definition of the left-wing ‘partner culture’ or communitarianism, separating the defence of specific rights from the general fight against capitalism.

In certain countries of the South, the tradition of struggles that associated the anti-imperialist struggle with social progress has given way to reactionary backward-looking illusions expressed by religions or pseudo ethics. In other countries of the South, the successful acceleration of economic growth over the last decades feeds the illusion that it is possible to construct a ‘developed’ national capitalism capable of imposing its active participation in shaping globalization.

4
The power of the oligarchies of contemporary imperialism seems to be indestructible, in the countries of the Triad and even at the world level (“the end of history”!). Public opinion subscribes to its disguise as ‘market democracy’, preferring it to its past adversary – socialism – which is invariably embellished by such odious sobriquets as criminal, nationalist or totalitarian autocracies.

However, this system is not viable for many reasons:
i. Contemporary capitalism is presented as being ‘open’ to criticism and reform, as innovative and flexible. Some voices claim to put an end to the abuses of its uncontrolled finance and the permanent austerity policies that accompany it – and thus ‘save capitalism’. But such calls will remain in vain as present practices serve the interests of the oligarchs of the Triad – the only ones that count – as they guarantee the continual increase of wealth in spite of the economic stagnation that besets their countries.

ii. The European sub-system is an integral part of imperial globalization. It was conceived in a reactionary spirit, that was anti-socialist and pro-imperialist, subordinate to the military command of the United States. Within it, Germany exercises its hegemony, particularly in the framework of the euro zone and over Eastern Europe which has been annexed just as Latin America has been annexed by the United States. ‘German Europe’ serves the nationalist interests of the German oligarchy, which are expressed with arrogance, as we saw in the Greek crisis. This Europe is not viable and its implosion has already started.

iii. The stagnation of growth in the countries of the Triad contrasts with the acceleration in growth of regions in the South which have been able to profit from globalization. It has been concluded too hastily that capitalism is alive and well, even if its centre of gravity is moving from the old countries of Atlantic West to the South, particularly Asia. In actual fact the obstacles to pursuing this historical corrective movement are likely to become increasingly violent, including military aggression. The imperial powers do not intend to allow any country of the periphery – great or small – to free themselves from domination.

iv. The ecological devastation that is necessarily associated with capitalist expansion is reinforcing the reasons why this system is not viable.

We are now in the phase of the ‘autumn of capitalism’ without this being strengthened by the emergence of ‘the people’s spring’ and a socialist perspective. The possibility of substantial progressive reforms of capitalism in its current stage is only an illusion. There is no alternative other than that enabled by a renewal of the international radical left, capable of carrying out – and not just imagining – socialist advances. It is necessary to end crisis-ridden capitalism rather than try to end the crisis of capitalism.
Based on a first hypothesis, nothing decisive will affect the attachment of the peoples of the Triad to their imperialist option, especially in Europe. The victims of the system will remain incapable of conceiving their way out of the paths that have been traced by the ‘European project’ which has to be deconstructed before it can then be reconstructed with another vision. The experiences of Syriza, Podemos and France Insoumise, the hesitations of Die Linke and others testify to the extent and complexity of the challenge. The facile accusation of ‘nationalism’ of those critical of Europe does not hold water. The European project is increasingly visible as being that of the bourgeois nationalism of Germany. There is no alternative in Europe, as elsewhere, to the setting up of national, popular and democratic projects (not bourgeois, indeed anti-bourgeois) that will begin the delinking from imperialist globalization. It is necessary to deconstruct the extreme centralization of wealth and the power that is associated with the system.
According to this hypothesis, the most probable outcome will be a remake of the 20th century: advances made exclusively in some of the peripheries of the system. But these advances will remain fragile, as have those of the past, and for the same reason – the permanent warfare waged against them by the imperialist power centres, the success of which is greatly due to their own limits and deviations. Whereas the hypothesis of a worker and people’s internationalism opens up the way to further evolutions that are necessary and possible.
The first of these ways is that of the ‘decadence of civilization’. In that case, these evolutions are not to be masterminded by anyone, their trail must be blazed only by the needs created by the situation. However, in our epoch, given the power of ecological and military destruction and the disposition of the powerful to use it, the risk, denounced by Marx in his time, that there is a very real risk that the fighting will destroy all the camps that oppose each other. The second path, by contrast, will require the lucid and organized intervention of the international front of the workers and the peoples.

5
Creating a new Internationale of workers and peoples must be the main objective for the genuine militants who are convinced of the odious nature of the world imperialist capitalist system that we have at present. It is a heavy responsibility and the task requires several years before giving any tangible results. As for myself, I put forward the following proposals:

i. The aim should be to establish an Organization (the new Internationale) and not just a ‘movement’. This involves moving beyond the concept of a discussion forum. It also involves analysing the inadequacies of the notion, still prevalent, that the ‘movements’ claim to be horizontal and are hostile to so-called vertical organizations on the pretext that the latter are by their very nature anti-democratic: that the organization is, in fact, the result of action which by itself generates ‘leaders’. The latter can aspire to dominate, even manipulate the movements. But it is also possible to avoid this danger through appropriate statutes. This should be discussed.

ii. The experience of the worker Internationales should be seriously studied, even if they belong to the past. This should be done, not in order to ‘choose’ a model among them, but to invent the most suitable form for contemporary conditions.

iii. Such an invitation should be addressed to a good number of combative parties and organizations. A committee should first be set up to get the project started.

By Vishwas Satgar

In the contemporary carbon centric life world of capitalism, gas guzzling automobiles, hi-tech aeroplanes, massive container ships and energy using skyscrapers are some of the obvious weapons of mass destruction. The more these resource intensive and carbon centric social relations prevail the more climate change is accelerated. In this version of senile capitalism nature is conquered. The new capitalist nature – under patriarchal domestication, scientifically observed and managed – has to be geo-engineered, carbon must be stored in the deep recesses of planet earth and oil spigots will only be shut when the last dollar is extracted from this deadly resource. The logic of contemporary capitalism, is not merely about dispossession, but about eco-cide, that is, obliterating the conditions necessary to sustain human and non-human life on planet earth. For Karl Marx, this was the metabolic rift of capitalism and for Rosa Luxemburg the conquest of the natural economy.

Neoliberalism has realised its terminus in history and confirmed its ideals. Property rights have spawned the sovereignty of capital, greedy plutocrats wield state power with the crudest of instrumentality and hyper individualism valorised through Americanised consumption and populist media spheres confirm the banality of celebrity culture as common sense. The self determination of the Americanised and nihilistic capitalist subject is the only expression of being human in contemporary capitalist civilisation, authorised by neoliberalism. But even this is not enough. The next step is the trans-human; the technotopian vision of bio and digital capital. Capitalism no longer has common cause with humanity. Married to decades of structural inequality this is the world of neoliberal capitalist utopia. There a no enemies: Soviet socialism is dead, the working class is precariatised, nature is conquered and history has ended. There are literally no left bogeys to blame. Yet a new right wing, neo-fascist, progeny of this neoliberal order has already started its march – from Washington, Brazilia, New Delhi, Budapest to Moscow – it stands at the ready to brutally crush any challenge to this utopia. Moreover, it misdirects publics against scapegoats – the migrant, black lives, the ‘Muslim’ , the indigenous or any over inflated ‘terror threat’.

Capitalism’s endgame has arrived. It will seek to defend the normalcy of capitalism at any cost. However, history and struggle have demonstrated how unsustainable militarised regimes are. The monopoly on violence is never a guarantor of pacification let alone global acquiesce. War also requires scarce resources and is costly. Militarism also in the age of nuclear weapons also comes with its constraints. In addition, mediatised and thin market democracies, openly buttressed by coercion, also face limits. Ultimately, hegemonic governance of brutish inequality is over, while the demos is restless and desperate. At the same time, the democratic subject has a full spectrum gaze, informed by multiple digital information sources and insights. Information about the socio-ecological condition is everywhere and can be accessed. Such a subject can even marvel at the idiocy of imperial power from afar, observe the clumsiness of autocrats and catch glimpses of inspiring assertions of subaltern street power. Put differently, while capitalism will utilise the neo-fascist option, and will even weaponise the digital sphere, this iron curtain of absolute oppression is not free from weaknesses. It is at this intersection, the history of democracy and socialism will thrive.
However, the real terror of the present moment in history is not even capitalist neo-fascism. It is the juggernaut of capitalist eco-cide that threatens not just planetary life conditions but capitalism itself. This makes the second coming of fascism anachronistic. Put more sharply, neo-fascism will also burn in a heating world and carbon capital’s ‘global gas chamber’. It is bone chilling to learn how carbon capital is prolonging its place in the global energy mix despite the alarm bells of climate science and at least one major climate shock every week on planet earth. The prospects of over shoot beyond a 1 degree increase in planetary temperature since before the industrial revolution looms large. Trump has given warrant to more carbon extraction in the US placing it at the top of supply tables and Bolsonaro supports commercial interests that are continuing genocidal violence against indigenous peoples, destroying bio diversity and hastening the release of about 140 billion tons of carbon from the Amazon through slash and burn appropriation. In South Africa carbon ruling classes are continuing to build the largest coal fired powered station in the world, they vaunt fracking and salivate at the prospects of off-shore gas extraction. This is a short list of carbon criminality but which confirms capitalism and its carbon ruling classes threaten everything including themselves. This means even reformist inclinations to manage carbon capitalism or green it are bound to fail, given the dooms day clock.

Given the science of climate change and accelerating carbon emissions, the death of capitalism and all of us by its eco-cidal logic is now patently clear. Africa, the imperial subject of the global north since the Berlin conference is defeated, captured by lumpen bourgeoise interests and is already unravelling in parts due to climate shocks. It is estimated that at least 200 million Africans will be displaced by worsening climate shocks and breakdown. ‘Fortress Europe’ or ‘Prison Complex USA’ will not be able to keep the ‘barbarians’ out because these societies, despite their affluence, will also be facing serious internal fault-lines due to climate shocks. The Sunrise movement, Extinction Rebellion and #FridaysForFuture are merely 1 degree Celsius movements. At 1.5 degrees many more will rise in these societies and will certainly reject being treated as collateral damage by irrational and eco-fascist ruling classes.
Three forms of climate justice disruption, expressing the living hope of the many, is being expressed in national spaces in this new phase of climate justice struggle. Such expressions of living hope are bringing about a convergence of climate justice forces that have been in existence for about 20 years, together with children and citizens. First, symbolic disruption of normalcy. The best example of this is Greta Thunburg and the #FridaysForFuture childrens protest actions. The alarm bell raised by the children is reinforcing the urgency coming through in the climate science and vice versa. Second, tactical disruption through gridlocking carbon including fossil fuel extractive circuits. Calls to boycott Macdonalds, Walmart and Subway because they have interests in slash and burn agriculture in the Amazon or Ende Gelände efforts to blockade coal pits in Germany are all crucial examples in this regard. Third, strategic disruption of eco-cidal capitalism through exits and ruptures through systemic alternatives such as Green New Deals that advance rapid decarbonisation, demilitarisation, democratic systemic reform from below, enabling peoples power to drive the just transition, and a geopolitics of climate justice. In this regard Bernie Sanders Green New Deal, committing $16.3 trillion, is certainly not the classical class compromise of capital and labour but a class project of the excluded 99% against the avaricious and eco-cidal 1%.

Ultimately, these forces will also have the task of confronting the eco-cidal logic of imperial power to ensure the global south can makes its own climate justice choices, including for deep systemic change that advances democratic eco-socialism. On September 20, the day of #GlobalClimateStrike, climate justice forces gathered outside the corporate headquarters of the 45th highest carbon polluter in the world, SASOL, in South Africa. Besides demanding a just transition plan from SASOL so South Africa can achieve its net zero emissions targets and democratise climate policy from below, these forces called for a national and international day of action on 1st May, 2020 to #gridlockcarbon on a global scale. This is about uniting children, citizens, climate justice forces and most importantly trade unions. The power of the organised working class, with all its weaknesses, has to be mainstreamed in climate justice struggles everywhere to advance strategic breakthroughs.

Moreover, a crucial democratic systemic reform, that will have to be further globalised from the periphery is the ‘re-agrarianisation’ of the world through food sovereignty and agro-ecology. Initiated by La Via Campesina, over two decades ago, every community, village, town and city, on a planetary scale will have to embrace such a democratic eco-socialist alternative. This has been under-scored by the recent International Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Biodiversity report (2019) and the International Panel on Climate Change Land Use report (2019). The bottom line is that mono-industrial, carbon centric and globalised food systems are implicated in our extinction.
Ultimately, the ecological horizons of contemporary socialism will be defined by global heating, climate shocks, worsening inequality and the human impulse to live. Water, food, land, forests, oceans and the biosphere – the global commons – are all going to be implicated in the revenge of nature against capitalist eco-cide. The raw power of nature will eclipse even anthropocentric notions of hybridising capitalism’s nature with the web of life. The infinity of nature and the finitude of the human will define the next period of socio-ecological history. It is at this confluence that democratic eco-socialism will learn more deeply from indigenous earth traditions to advance life, reject productivism and affirm a de-alienated relationship with nature. A slow world, operating within the metabolic cycles of nature, is our only hope for the many. Such a world never died but was merely pushed into the shadows by colonial, neoliberal and imperial violence.

By Quincy Saul

In 2001, the first “Ecosocialist was written by Joel Kovel and Michael Lowy, inspired by the planetary convergence of anti capitalist movements for social and ecological justice. In the second paragraph, they prefigured the path ahead:
“Innumerable points of resistance arise spontaneously across the chaotic ecumene of global capital. Many are immanently ecosocialist in content. How can these be gathered? Can we envision an “ecosocialist international?” Can the spectre be brought into being?”
In the first two decades of the 21st century, spectre has become spirit has become substance- the First Ecosocialist International ha s been convoked and constituted, and is now traversing a global route of struggle. This path ahead is what concerns us the most. But as Pearl Buck said, “if you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.”
What follows then is a chronicle of how we have come this far; a pre history in primary sources of the path that led to the Ecosocialist International. These are unusual documents; written not by a handful of spokespeople, but collectively crafted and ratified in smaller groups and larger assemblies, in groups ranging from a couple dozen people (first document) to about 40 people (second document) to over 100 people (final document). They are testament to the sophisticated political pedagogy of the grassroots revolutionary process in Venezuela. Only excerpts of these documents are reproduced here readers are encouraged to follow the links to the full texts. In addition to inviting the scrutiny and solidarity of participants in this forum, I humbly and
audaciously hope that these seeds may flourish in the fertile soils of Azania.

1. From “The Calling of the Spirits” 2015:
“Every year in a small village in the state of Lara in Venezuela, the Guardians of the Seeds converge. Last year this movement was able to lead the construction and approval of an anti GMO and anti patent Seed Law. This year, the hosts are offering a space…. for a “Calling of the Spirits” …they invite you to form part of a pluricosmovisionary commission, which will begin the design of a collective process of preparation to arrive at the First Ecosocialist International….”

From the everyday transformative actions of ecosocialist collectives, organizations and social movements, from spirited minds and from seeds planted in our hearts, the idea has emerged: To envision the Convocation of the First Ecosocialist International in Venezuela, Abya Yala. To specify and coordinate our anti capitalist and anti
patriarchal practices, and from their encounter to think and feel a new revolutionary ethic…..

We don’t aspire to unite academics who are not tied to socioeconomic and political mobilizations, but rather the militants from ecosocialist organizations and movements. And we come together not to beg or to denounce, but to articulate our struggles i n a Common Plan of Action, based on the concrete tasks of political, economic, social and ecological struggle in daily life….

We don’t believe that we or anyone alone can define the fundamental questions that will prefigure the soul of the First Ecosocialist International. For this reason, we are inviting organizations and movements, who believe like us in this dream, and walk the path of the word to attain it: to decide upon and send a spokesperson to accompany us…. to establish the parameters, and then t o spread the good news of the convocation around the world…..

2. From ,”The Cry of Mother Earth,” 2016
for the ancestors who,
for the ancestors who, with their lives and struggles, plowed the spirit and the strength of what we now call ecosocialism

……

CALL TO THE FIRST ECOSOCIALIST INTERNATIONAL! REWEAVING PANGAEA….

Ecosocialism is one of the voices which responds to the cry of Mother Earth, one among many convocations which emerge from our territories. Ecosocialism is a calling in which many others are evoked and resound; one of the many ways to name the pain of Mother Earth, which claims us, names us, and challenges us to change…

Who are we calling upon in response to Mother Earth´s cry and call to the First Ecosocialist International?

Those who never accepted exile call upon us: those who have resisted and remained rooted, who have been punished by a conquest which cannot tolerate them. The fact that they are still alive, speaking their languages at they are still alive, speaking their languages and maintaining their traditions expresses the greatest and most beautiful capacity of resistance and rebellion in and maintaining their traditions expresses the greatest and most beautiful capacity of resistance and rebellion in human history. Their survival, in spite of the mistreatment and abuse they have suffered, guides us and calls out guides us and calls out to us. They are peoples rooted in their land, indelibly interwoven with Mother Earth. It is these peoples who to us. It is these peoples who today confront the greatest risks of extinction.

Those who have returned, who have experienced the desolation of their banishment, and have taken the path home: they too call on us to join them. This is also their place. We need to pay respect to their word and home: they too call on us to join them. This is also their place. We need to pay respect to their word and experience by making it our own.experience by making it our own.

Those of us who, in word and action, in multiple and diverse ways and on different paths, resound with our commitment to return, and who therefore are walking in this common struggle, call upon ourselves to be, as we certain to become, from and with Mother Earth.

Mother Earth: Those who have remained interwoven; those who were exiled
but have now returned; those who have joined in struggle to take the path back to your bosom and wisdom in word and action: we call upon one another….

We are aware that the few who will take part in the convocation of First Ecosocialist International will not be all not be all of us; indeed that most of us will not be there. Those who will meet in the first encounter of the Ecosocialist International must humbly realize this great limitation and assume an enormous responsibility: to weave a process between and beyond themselves; to carry it on all the required paths towards the liberation of Mother Earth. Although not replaced nor represented, the many absent may count on the commitment and experience of those present to consciously contribute to a movement of movements and a spiral of spirals. We seek neither answers nor leaders, but the weaving of many ways to free ourselves with Mother Earth…

We have decided to make the most of four days, between the 31st of October and the 3rd of November 2017, to be moved, and to lay the foundations for a short, medium and long-term plan of collective action. We must begin to respond in this short time with the greatest wisdom to achieve maximum impact. Thus we aim to identify  prioritize select processes and individuals, who, responding to the criteria outlined here, will exchange experiences and propose directions. The purpose is not to exclude, but on the contrary, to begin to move forward from solid ground and vision towards inclusion. This initial plan of action will be presented both humbly and firmly as the axis of a spiral whose vocation and commitment is to contribute to compose word and action, word in harmony, until all are free from project of death that overwhelms us, until all are interwoven again Mother Earth…

3. From “Combined “Combined Strategy and Plan of Action of the First Ecosocialist International,” 2017

It has been one year since “The Calling of the Spirits” in Monte Carmelo, Lara, when, with spirited minds and seeds in our hearts, we initiated a convocation titled “The Cry of Mother Earth.” Those who responded to this cry are now here: around 100 people from 19 countries and five continents, 12 original peoples from Our America, and ecosocialist activists from 14 states of Venezuela…. we have done the work demanded of us: the
articulation of a combined strategy and plan of action for the salvation of Mother Earth.

We have made the decision and the collective commitment to constitute the First Ecosocialist International: To reverse the destructive process of capitalism; to return t o our origins and recuperate the ancestral spirituality of humanity; to live in peace, and end war.

We recognize that we are only a small part of a spiral of spirals, which has the profound intention to expand and include others until all of us are rewoven with Mother Earth; to restore harmony within us, between us, and among all the other sister beings of nature.

The First Ecosocialist International is not just another meeting, nor another conference of intellectuals to define ecosocialism. We believe that ecosocialism will define itself to the extent that it is reflected and conceptualized in praxis; based on what we do and what we are. Nor is the First Ecosocialist International a single organization or a rubber stamp in constant danger of becoming a bureaucracy. It is a common program of struggle, with moments of encounter and exchange, which anyone may join, by committing themselves to fulfilling one or more of the various actions agreed upon here in order to relieve our Mother Earth. No person or process can be owner or protagonist of that which is done and achieved collectively.

We invite all peoples, movements, organizations, collectives and beings in the world to join the First Ecosocialist International, and to undertake the collective construction of a program for the salvation of Mother Earth…

We have organized our proposals amongst the five elements: Aether, Water, Earth, Fire and Air, interwoven into the spirit, the milk, the body, the energy and the voice of Mother Earth; harvesting our ancestral cultures so that they may be dispersed as seeds throughout the four sacred directions of the world.

These actions are proposed for the short term a time of struggle, for the medium term a time of construction, and the long term a time of utopia, u nderstanding the long term as approximately 500 years…

ROUTE OF STRUGGLE OF THE FIRST ECOSOCIALIST INTERNATIONAL
> Every year between October 31st and November 3rd, we will organize days of shared and synchronized work on a planetary scale for the fulfillment of this Plan of Action
> To follow up and amplify the plan of action of the First Ecosocialist International, we will program a PanAfrican convergence, to promote the interrelationship of Our America with Our Africa….

HOW TO BE PART OF THE FIRST ECOSOCIALIST INTERNATIONAL
In the first place, we believe along with Jose Marti that “the best way to say is to do.” The best way to be part of the First Ecosocialist International is to commit yourself to fulfilling one or more of the actions in this Combined Strategy and Plan of Action. In this way, your collectives, organizations, and movements will be “part of the
First Ecosocialist International.” No individual or group is the First Ecosocialist International alone; it is only when we are.

By Natalya Dinat

The Anti-apartheid movement (AAM) was a loosely organised social movement for
solidarity that became an international movement. Its simple aims were necessarily
reformist, as opposed to revolutionary. Its strategy and programs were guided in the main
by the ANC and alliance partner the SACP. International solidarity was one of the “four
pillars of struggle” of the ANC, it made the others possible and was only possible
because of the others – (others were mass mobilisation, armed struggle, underground
work).

A short history
Late 1940s – 1960
There was a high anti -fascist sentiment amongst ordinary peoples of Europe immediately
after the second world war. Fascism, was accepted by liberals and socialists as an evil to
be vanquished. After the war, Britain built a strong trade union movement and the workers’ movements
had gained hard won concessions such as the National Health Service. The 1950’s also
saw the Cold War take hold. Anti-colonial struggles were afoot and within many national
liberation movements were struggles between a nascent national bourgeoise and
socialists.

After the implementation of apartheid laws, some South Africans were able to move to
Britain, mainly to pursue an education. Amongst them were communists. The
internationalist principals of communists led them naturally to work closely with the CPGB
and with the British Labour Party. The importance of international support for national
liberation became clear. They became involved in the Committee of African Organisations
around 1958 (CAO).

Since 1907 consumer boycotts been a tool of struggle in South Africa especially during the
defiance campaigns of the 1950s. The first call for an international consumer boycott was
by the first All-African People’s Conference, held in Accra in 1958. The CAO, based in
London, launched a major boycott campaign in 1959. Broad mobilisation was consistent
with the inclusive approach of the ANC and its allies. It was decided that “all support
should be welcomed and none excluded, and that the campaign should be seen as a
‘liberal’ (small ‘l’) issue and not in terms of party politics at all.”
This culminated in a successful mass demonstration in February 1960 with an estimated
15000 people marching.

1960- early 1970s
The AAM took the struggle to the United Nations and pressurised governments for
economic, military and diplomatic isolation. International legal rulings, of apartheid as a
crime against humanity, undoubtedly assisted the struggle being waged all fronts. Victories
claimed by the AAM included enough pressure to save the Rivonia trialists from hanging,
and the outrage generated during the Springbok tour of 1969.

1970’s -1991
The AAM initiated campaigns for the arms embargo and a disinvestment campaign in
response to crisis of capital of the early 1970s. The end of the 1970s saw the start of the
Thatcher – Reagan era introducing Milton Freidman’s “free market capitalism” and shock
doctrine. The oppression in countries such as Chile, South Africa, and the rise of racist
facist political parties (British National front) and of course the devastating destruction of
the trade union movements began.

The AAM grew in 1980s from a small pressure group to a movement of many thousands
of supporters, organising the biggest demonstrations Britain had yet seen. It mobilised
youth, churches, workers, trade unions, political parties and community organisations.
Globally the AAM spread to the USA, western Europe, India and to a lesser extent in
Africa. The Free Nelson Mandela Campaign was an impressive global phenomenon.
There were solidarity movements with many other oppressed peoples across the globe. I
remember participating in demonstrations against the US invasion of Vietnam in the early
1970s.

It became almost a requirement as a liberal to join the fight against apartheid. The AAM
had begun to mobilise in black and ethnic minority communities and working class
communities when the ANC was unbanned. There were also outstanding sacrifices, a step beyond solidarity, which were of immeasurable significance, these included:
The use of volunteers, such as the London recruits , willing to risk ones life or freedom in
the name of internationalism, reminiscent of the heroes of the International Brigades
fighting fascism in Spain in the 1930’s
Significant material assistance requested by liberation movements came from the socialist
countries, the front line states, Nordic governments as well as ordinary peoples from all
over the world. Cuba was the only country to provide direct military assistance.

Lessons learnt
Successes of the AAM were due the following:
– its ability to mobilise broadly across the political spectrum, and its ability to hold this
alliance in the face of the fierce anti-communism of the Cold War.
– the liberation program of the ANC enabling clarity and guidance for the AAM.
– Nations’ democracies being more functional meaning that people were able to effectively
pressurise their governments.
– Trade unions were strong, as were other left political groups, so there was a higher level
of political consciousness.
– Inequality and absolute poverty was less than now, in the global north more people had
work security.
– There was significant material support from the Socialist bloc , which enabled the two
pillars of struggle of armed struggle (even if it achieved mainly symbolic gains) and
underground work , which in turn enabled the mass struggle and international solidarity.
– Direct (horizontal) links were effective. For example workers of the NUM SA linking with
NUM GB, The Dunn shop workers striking in solidarity had a ripple effect amongst retail
workers
Limitations
– the broad alliance led to a strong influence by the neoliberal agenda, which the ANC was
unable to resist post 1991.
– the movement took over 40 years to reach levels of international mobilisation of the
1980s.

The world has changed
– For many people across the world there is an erosion of national democracy, countries
have become oligarchies, autarkies, kleptocracies or a malfunctioning state. Ability by
movements to influence policy or even raise accountability of governments are becoming
more rare. Does this make peaceful mass action, a hallmark of the AAM ineffective? One
has to to look at the ineffective largest mass mobilisation ever in Europe against the war in
Iraq in 2003
– An associated a rise of corporate influence in the political sphere. It may be worth
discussing the type of impact of economic sanctions and consumer boycotts on the
market. Was it of political value, or did it impact on the market? Today, what kind of
economic sanctions would be effective?
– The rise of the gig economy, allowed by the destruction of trade unions in Britain, SA
and other countries. (Although Germany and France seem still to have strongish
unions).
–
– The world systems marxists generally delineate capitalist periods of accumulation in
decades, accentuated by periods of crisis. But we have less than a decade before we
face unimaginable global food, shelter and water crises.
– We cannot wait for capitalism to destroy the planet. This rather puts a spoke in the wheel
of marxists determinists who will wait until capitalism is a spent logic.
– Social media is a powerful tool of capitalism to swing elections, create mob violence fear
and hatred, and acts as a counter to political consciousness raising.
– Increasing inequality tied to austerity measures.
– The fall of the the Soviet bloc
– the ideological vacuum of the left.
– The rise of fascism and normalisation of racism
– Capitalism is a globalised force today – so we need a global counter -movement. This
movement, unlike the AAM should be a political and revolutionary movement in the sense
that it cannot reform capitalism. As well as globalised finance social and political aspects
of capitalism have also gone global; wars , migration, slavery, labour migrant systems,
health issues, and of course the inescapable effects of carbon economy.
Theoretical and practical issues for us today
– A Socialist International cannot be a broad alliance, including left-ish liberals. However
it should be able to make strategic short term alliances with liberals. eg when fighting
fascism in India. It should also make locally and internationally strategic alliances with
anti-racist, feminist, anti-ecocidal groups, whilst maintaining its anticapitalist stance. –
-Interactions with struggles of indigenous peoples, women, youth, gender non-binary
and smaller right based campaigns should not detract from the fight against capitalism.
We need to develop an understanding as to how their struggles fit in a modern marxist
revolutionary praxis. Because, unless we address the immediate important or lifethreatening
concerns of the poor they will continue to vote for extreme right.
– As Amin wrote in his last essays, the centre and periphery are not as they were. Within
some nation states , exist such extreme inequality , disenfranchisement of large
sections of the population (eg SA, USA, Brazil) that we can see “center/periphery’
issues. not even semi-periphery. An re-analysis of this will assist in developing strategy
toward the problem of diagonal and top down or bottom up relationships between
national movements.
– Finally Luxembourg’s writings on the tension between historical determinism – the
inevitability of the collapse of capitalism – and the voluntarism of emancipatory action.
I think that the contradictions of volunteerism and determinism are that they are
inextricably and dialectically linked and the one gives rise to the other. However we are
at a critical stage for the future of humanity that does not allow the luxury of determinism –
the house is on fire – we have no time , we must act, locally and globally.
Finally there are three important issues for us in South Africa if we are to contribute
meaningfully first – is to raise political consciousness amongst all our people. To do this
requires urgent work at the “grass root’. Political literacy is ties up with basic literacy. we
need many workers’ schools, night schools, community radio, TV.
secondly a contemporary socialist theory for the International
thirdly a political program to fight fascism, stop wars , nuclear weapons and violence
(opposite of democracy), and reverse inequality – stop discrimination, promote rights of
women and oppressed sections of the population, stop ecocide destruction of the planet,.
A modern variant of Peace, Bread Land is
PEACE (not fascism, yes to democracy) , BREAD (and water for all) , LAND (our planet
for all)

references
1. Arianna Lissoni PhD Thesis The South African Liberations movements in exile
2. Ankie Hoogvelt the Third world in Global development.
3 The History of the Anti apartheid movement https://www.aamarchives.org/history/1980s.html
4 Nancy Fraser The significance of Rosa Luxemburg youtube
5 Chase Dunn et al 21st Century trajectories of globalisation
6 Amin S Towards the Fifth International ?

1. Introduction

South Africa goes to its 6^th national elections on May 8^th, 2019, with 48 contesting parties. This is in a context in which inequality is worsening, costs of living are going up and unemployment is a major challenge. This election is also happening while South Africa’s worst drought in recorded history is still ravaging various villages and towns. All our political parties have failed to recognize the drought as a climate shock. All seemed surprised by cyclone Idai, another climate shock, and its devastation. The science on climate change from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is clear that as planet earth is heated through more greenhouse gas emissions (from burning coal, oil and gas) we will have more extreme weather shocks such as droughts, heatwaves, floods, cyclones and more. We are currently at 1.2 degree Celsius hotter since before the industrial revolution and are fast heading to a 1.5C overshoot unless over the next 12 years we cut emissions by 45% to 2010 levels and to net zero by 2050. We have 12 years to prevent catastrophic climate change.

This climate justice critique is based on a reading of party manifestos. It applies to all political parties while making specific critiques of the ANC, DA and EFF, the larger parties in South Africa’s current political system.

• General Climate Justice Critique of Political Parties

2.1       The climate crisis is a systemic crisis of carbon driven global capitalism. It has its origins in 150 years of fossil fuel extraction and use by rich industrialised countries. Industrialising countries like China, Brazil, India and Russia control substantial amounts of fossil fuel reserves today. South Africa’s coal addiction also makes it a carbon criminal state. Its use of coal intensifies climate change and its impacts through extreme weather events, including on the continent. More climate change brings climate inequalities and injustices through escalating food and water costs as well as job losses. Many farm workers have been retrenched in the context of South Africa’s drought. None of the parties understand climate change as a dangerous contradiction driven by carbon capitalism and the need for South Africa to be a climate justice state in relation with its people, on the continent and the world stage.

• The climate crisis is a complex and interconnected crisis. Given that carbon is not just extracted but is also used as a major energy source across economies. Moreover, carbon energy use differs from sectors. In South Africa at least 9% of emissions come from globalised agriculture. Carbon is also used in various industrial processes such as construction. An energy transition to socially owned renewables is just one part of the challenge. Decarbonising the economy is a broader challenge. Moreover, as climate shocks continue we need new adaptive systems that sustain life. We have to recognize the interconnections of cause and multiple effects. Cyclone Idai and its effects could have been mitigated if there were proper disaster management systems, media reporting, dam management, food sovereignty systems, health systems, functioning across the country for example. Instead, river flooding started before Idai hit landfall in central Mozambique, dam walls failed, there was inadequate communication to warn people and disaster management systems have been overwhelmed. Cholera, hunger, lack of access to health care and water stress are claiming lives besides the direct impact of the cyclone. South Africa’s drought, another example of a climate shock, has also had several effects on society, economy and ecological relations. None of the political parties understand or would like to voice the complexity of the climate crisis.

•  We have a crisis of climate leadership amongst all South Africa’s political parties and none are committed to ensuring South Africa, the region and the continent is on a climate emergency footing. Being on a climate emergency footing means advancing a deep just transition/s to ensure regulated, purposive, ambitions and planned reductions in carbon emissions to prevent a 1.5C overshoot and the necessary adaptive systems are in place that transform energy, production, consumption, finance and public systems through democratic systemic reforms to ensure workers, the poor and the vulnerable do not pay the price of the transition and climate shocks. Such a deep just transition is led by the working class and mass social forces, rooted in a red-green alliance seeking climate justice.

• None of South Africa’s parties understand the climate crisis as part of larger ecological crisis. More extraction, pollution, chemical based agriculture, waste, deforestation and over consumption are undermining natural cycles of the earth system and accelerating species extinction. Several planetary bio-physical limits (fresh water, land use, ocean acidification, bio-geochemical flows, for example) are being breached and capitalism’s eco-cidal logic is creating a toxic and unlivable world. We need to reconnect with the web of life, recognise we share the planet with other life forms that have rights and have to rethink everything from the standpoint of eco-centric ethics and the deep just transition. None of the political parties are making these arguments to confront the eco-cidal logic of capitalism.

• Climate Justice Critique of the African National Congress (ANC)

3.1       The ANC as the ruling party in South Africa has locked South Africa into the pledge and review mechanism of the United Nations. The ANC government turned its back on a climate justice approach to the historical debt owed by rich industrialised countries, to ambitious regulated reductions in carbon emissions and is certainly not positioning South Africa as a climate justice state on the continent. Moreover, its response to the drought, as a major climate shock, has been dismal. A national disaster was declared in early 2018 after the food system collapsed, many communities were ravaged by the drought and after the national department of water affairs was looted, with various water delivery projects compromised. The drought continues in South Africa and there is no leadership from the ANC state to learn lessons and prepare for the next round of climate shocks. The drought and the climate crisis are not mentioned in the manifesto. There is no explicit theme in the manifesto dealing with the climate crisis.

• The ANC manifesto vaunts its successes and is very self congratulatory. It reads as though South Africa owes the ANC a debt for the great job it has done based on a set of quantitative indicators showing grand successes and improvements. These magnitudes of success hide more than they reveal. South Africa has an economy in deep crisis; inequalities, unemployment and hunger have increased. The ANC takes no responsibility for this disaster and crisis of social reproduction it has led South Africa into for 25 years. Climate shocks will only deepen the suffering of the majority. Yet, the ANC manifesto makes no effort to bring to the fore the existential threat of the climate crisis.

•  The ANC proclaims a commitment to industrialisation (including for localised renewable energy technology production), the ‘4^th industrial revolution’, township economies, land reform, public transport, National Health Insurance etc. in a context in which state capture has fundamentally compromised the ability of the state to lead even modest reforms. The Arms deal, Nkandla, ‘Ace-Gate’ and BOSASA are only the tip of the rotten rubbish heap. According to the auditor general reports, 2017-2018, irregular expenditure in government was R72 billion. The majority of state entities audited had adverse findings. The country knows, through the Zondo Commission, how ANC factions have been engaged in state capture regarding Eskom (South Africa’s monopoly energy parastatal). The ANC cannot be trusted with leading industrialisation of renewables, laying the basis for a transition to a renewable energy system, for resolving the challenges of Eskom and fixing our water systems. More state failure rather than the makings of a climate emergency state should be expected.

3.4       The ANC manifesto calls for gas and oil extraction in our oceans. It also understands renewables as a compliment to coal. All of this is linked to the investment game plan of raising investment levels to R1.3 trillion over the next 4 years. The ANC manifesto still envisages a deeply globalised economy, driven by the interests of transnational capital. Within that it is creating space for black industrial capital, agrarian capital, cooperatives and worker ownership in the economy through employee stock option schemes. De-racialising capitalism is at the heart of its multi-class project; a little bit more trickle down with a slightly broader base. Ironically globalisation has never and will never be a development strategy let alone a basis to transform South Africa to deal with accelerating climate change. The ANC has an impoverished imagination with no new thinking; its manifesto merely reveals more of the same.

• Climate Justice Critique of the Democratic Alliance (DA)

4.1       The DA failed to prepare Cape Town for its drought, despite science based warnings, academic warnings and more. Its day-zero approach placed a squeeze on poor households and passed on the pressure of managing the drought to working class, middle class and poor households. It did not challenge water ownership and control by white agricultural interests. It forced the use of desalination plants as an emergency measure and at great cost to tax payers. Moreover, high water levies raised billions for the DA led Metro while working class and poor households are faced with punitive tariffs that undermine their water needs. Day zero was about climate injustice and creating new climate inequalities. As a neoliberal party, the DA has expressed a ‘green neoliberal’ response to the drought which always privileges the wealthy. Hence it has encouraged thousands of boreholes in Cape Town and smaller towns, which is only affordable by the wealthy and which threatens the long run viability of aquifers in these areas.

4.2.      The DA has a manifesto that deals explicitly with climate change and the need for a resilience plan. Several problems stand out. First, the DA views the Paris Climate Agreement as a viable instrument for dealing with emission reductions. It’s voluntary approach to reducing emissions and building a registry is really just about green wash. South Africa needs more than this to meet its reduction targets given the current science and urgency. Second, it supports fracking, nuclear and off shore gas extraction. Like the ANC it still has a shallow conception of how to get to a zero carbon economy. Third, it has a private sector led approach to renewable energy. Essentially Eskom must make way for independent power producers that supply the national grid and local governments. There is no real concern for workers in Eskom or for the working conditions of workers in the renewables industry. Renewable energy capital, not workers, communities, households or public institutions, is the key driver of the energy transition in their manifesto. Fourth, the DA advocates carbon capture and storage as a solution for South Africa’s emission problems. This is an untried technology and a techno-fix that distracts from the need for a deep just transition to a zero carbon energy system.

4.3       The DA approach to water reflects the interest of white, agro-industrial capital, in the main. It recognises the impacts of the drought on farmers and hence champions more dams, infrastructure and policy support for these farmers. The DA does not question the fact that 62% of South Africa’s water resources are controlled by these farmers. Moreover, this kind of mono-industrial agriculture failed South Africa in the drought; it collapsed. South Africa needs a new food system based on localisation (not exports) small scale farmers, agro-ecology and seed, water and food sovereignty. 

• Climate Justice Critique of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF)

5.1       The EFF is a racist political party, Afro-chauvinist, with a strong authoritarian populist streak. Some would prefer to describe it as ‘Black Neo-fascist’. It is generally not clear what it stands for; it has contradictory policies and practices. One day it is for the constitution and another day against; one day against corruption and another day it’s leaders are implicated in corruption (VBS ‘bank heist’, tender hijacking in Metros, for example); one day for state ownership and another for stakeholder capitalism. Its manifesto has a section on ‘Environment and Climate’, while the document still supports a carbon, mainly coal based and mining driven economy. It’s commitment to addressing the climate crisis, let alone the larger planetary ecological crisis, is incoherent to say the least and its explicit target to reduce emissions by 10% in 2024 is certainly not ambitious enough. It betrays a lack of understanding of the urgency of the climate crisis and scientific necessity to cut emissions even more drastically. This is a party without any progressive values. In general, it represents a nativist resource nationalism, which is exclusionary, opportunistic and its general orientation is against a climate justice politics that stands for all the workers, poor and vulnerable in our society – black and white.

• The energy section is one that is probably the least progressive section of the manifesto. It has no original thinking on the energy transition challenge as part of the larger deep just transition. The EFF is state centric in its energy approach and supports the use of mixed energy sources, including so-called safe coal, nuclear energy, as well as, renewables. The plan outlined in the manifesto is that an EFF government will have a state owned company take over all Eskom owned coal mines and assist Eskom in establishing a renewable energy division, with the energy base still anchored on coal and nuclear. It will also end preferential pricing to big energy uses. The EFF’s energy approach completely avoids and neglects the dangers of coal and nuclear, and shows a lack of understanding of the urgency to completely break from fossil fuels and false energy solutions to ensure a rapid transition to a zero carbon energy system based on socially owned renewables.

5.3       The EFF is committed to a resource nationalism based on reproducing South Africa’s toxic minerals-energy complex through a statist capitalism which has immense potential to be even more corrupt than what we are experiencing. Understanding the climate crisis in its interconnections requiring systemic alternatives to drive the deep just transition is absent. The EFF endorses the One Million Climate Jobs Campaign, while still committed to an energy program centered on coal and nuclear energy, merely, discrediting and making a mockery of the campaign. The EFF commits to the ‘Green Revolution’, as part of its understanding of agricultural transformation. The ‘Green Revolution’ is about productivist, corporate led agriculture. Such agriculture collapsed during South Africa’s drought and on a global scale contributes about 40% to global emissions. This is not a systemic alternative to address the challenges of building a new food system in South Africa. On water issues, the EFF merely has a narrow ‘service delivery approach’. Yes, safe, clean water must be delivered to the people. But from the standpoint of the deep just transition our water resources are being compromised by more mining, including coal mining, which the EFF supports. An example of contradictory EFF practice is their support for the Xolobeni community’s rejection of mining. This is rather hypocritical given the EFF’s support for more mining. Corruption has affected water infrastructure delivery and the EFF is no shining example of fighting corruption. South Africa needs more than a shopping list approach to its water crisis. It needs a people driven water sovereignty approach to planning, managing and sharing our water commons.

• Towards a Climate Justice Charter for South Africa

South Africa has a crisis of political leadership regarding the climate crisis.

It is in this context we invite all living in South Africa to contribute to the Climate Justice Charter for South Africa to ensure we hasten the deep just transition to ensure the workers, the poor and vulnerable do not pay the price of climate change. 

We also have an inter-generational obligation to act, now, to ensure present and future generations have a future. It is not too late to act to prevent the extinction of human and non-human life forms.

Key themes for the charter to be elaborated in grassroots dialogues relate to systemic alternatives that would bring down carbon emissions and ensure we sustain life as climate shocks hit. These themes include:

• Principles for the Charter
• Our conception of the just transition for South Africa taking into account class, race, gender and ecological relations
• Systemic alternatives related to land use, water, rights of nature, energy, food, production, consumption, waste, transport, housing, finance;
• The role of the climate emergency state and our international relations as a climate justice society;
• Communication, education and awareness raising to mobilise society
• The role and form of people’s power from below

Send your input to: Jane Cherry

Email: copac2@icon.co.za

Contact:

Dr. Vishwas Satgar, COPAC Board Chairperson/ SAFSC Alliance Partner, 082 775 3420

Ferrial Adam, COPAC / SAFSC Alliance Partner, 074 181 3197

Itumeleng Mogatusi, GreenHouse Project / SAFSC Alliance Partner, 073 601 7078